Sporting track will help Pakistan against England: Jalal

KARACHI: Former Pakistan Test cricketer Jalaluddin has said that inclusion of two spinners in the 15-men squad announced for the first Test against England indicated that Pakistan’s strategy would be based on spinning track in this series.

The national selection committee on Wednesday announced the 15-men squad for the first Test against England in Multan. Jalaluddin, who has PCB level 4 and ECB level 3 coaching certifications, told The News that home ground is the advantage of any home team but the planners should keep in mind that Pakistan team is also weak on spinning track.

“Our batsmen always struggle on spin-friendly pitches. Besides, England also have good spinners,” he added. He also pointed out that Pakistani curators failed to make pitches helping Pakistan cricket team and results came against Pakistan. The 2-0 defeat against Bangladesh exposed many things, he said.

Jalaluddin was of the view that Pakistan should prepare sporting wickets which help medium pacers on the first two days and spinners in the last two days. Pakistani batting line is successful on such pitches, he said.

He said that the appointment of Shan Masood is a right decision and Pakistan have no other choice but to continue the captaincy of Shan Masood. He made it clear that if Pakistan wanted to win or level the Test series against England, Babar Azam would have to score runs. “Other batsmen and all rounders should contribute in the batting line up and score handsome amount of runs. Otherwise Pakistan would not survive against England,” Jalaluddin said.

“England have changed their cricket. They don’t fear losing matches. They go all out for winning matches and take risks. Sometimes they aren’t successful in winning matches but their strategy and planning is result oriented.”

He said that during the series England would give chances to Pakistan to win. “They could suddenly declare the innings and give a target to make the match result oriented. It depends on Pakistan how they accept the challenge,” Jalaluddin said.

He said that Pakistan did not have strength in any department. “They have only option to play without the fear of defeat and wait for England’s weaknesses to be exposed and when England would give them a chance to make the matches result oriented grab that opportunity and play with utmost dedication and unity.

Test cricket is 5 days game ups and downs would come during the four innings,” he added. He said that possible bowling combination would be Aamir Jamal, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed and Noman Ali.